1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is thin aluminum-based alloy foils and wires which are excellent in strength and corrosion resistance, have a smooth surface, and have a very small thickness or diameter with a uniform distribution of thickness or diameter thereof, and a process for producing same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present inventors have already developed alloys within a wider range of compositions based on aluminum and have filed patent applications therefore, such as Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open Nos. 47831/89; 127641/89; 240632/89; 240631/89; and 275732/89.
Such alloys are being studied for application to wider fields of structural members for vehicles, corrosion-resistant materials for chemical apparatus, corrosion- or wear-resistant coating materials and the like as materials exhibiting excellent specific strength (strength/alloy density), corrosion resistance and stability in high temperature, and workability.
Conventional amorphous alloys have been produced in the form of a ribbon, a wire, a powder or a coating film by a liquid quenching process, a submerged spinning process, a gas-atomizing process, or a physical or chemical vapor deposition process. In such cases, however, it is difficult to produce an amorphous ribbon of a thickness of 10 .mu.m or less and an amorphous wire of a diameter of 50 .mu.m or less. In addition, the materials such as the amorphous ribbon, wire or the like are non-uniform in thickness or diameter and also have a greater surface roughness. For this reason, such materials cannot be directly utilized in fields of applications in which an extremely small thickness, an extremely small fineness, a smoothness in surface and a uniformity in thickness and in diameter are required. Moreover, such materials are higher in hardness and strength, and currently it is impossible to easily effect the usual working processes such as rolling or drawing of such materials which otherwise might be effective for overcoming the above disadvantages.